Congress slams Centre, Delhi over pollution

According to the information, the white paper was prepared on the direction of DPCC chief Ajay Maken.

Shashi Tharoor (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: All-India Professionals’ Congress (AICP) chairman Shashi Tharoor, while releasing a white paper on air pollution prepared by the Delhi Chapter of the AICP, said the people of Delhi have a right to breathe.

“But the Central government and the Delhi government are preventing our right to breathe,” Mr Tharoor alleged while releasing the papers.

According to the information, the white paper was prepared on the direction of DPCC chief Ajay Maken.

“We formed a team of experts. The team worked hard to prepare the report on Delhi’s air pollution. The experts have gone through various chapters across the country to look into feasible short and long term measures to deal with Delhi’s air pollution crisis,” Mr Tharoor said.

He said the white paper has found problems and solutions for the worsening air pollution in Delhi. He also added that how bad the air pollution has become in Delhi is evident from the fact that the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team not only found the going tough, but they could not field even 11 players in the ongoing Test match against India at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium. It is similar to the situation when the Australian cricket team, 20 years ago, found playing at the Kotla stadium impossible due to terrible air pollution.

“When we had government in Delhi, we introduced CNG for public transport to bring down the pollution levels considerably,” he said.

Mr Tharoor, elaborating further on the air pollution in Delhi, said that Delhi is experiencing an unprecedented air quality emergency, tackling which will require a concerted effort by the Central and state government, industries, traders, citizens, and various sections of the society.